Grain separating drum



April 26, 1938. L. JOHNSON GRAIN SEPARATING DRUM Filed- Feb. 11, 1956 IN YEN TOR LEON/l re 0 Jomvsou a All-:- jfirfle s MWZM m? Patented A r.2c, 1938 I 2,115,074

I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GRAIN SEPARATING DRUM Leonard Johnson,Minneapolis, Minn., assignor to Hart-Carter Company, Peoria, 111., acorporation of Delaware Application February 11, 1936, Serial No. 63,350

- 1 Claim. (01. 209-95) My present invention relates particularly to toa high elevation where the latter will be disgrain separating drums andis in the nature of charged from the pockets into .a receiving trough animprovement on or modification of the sepathereby accomplishing theseparation of relatively rating drum disclosed and claimed in anapplishort from relatively long grain, but irrespective 5 cation filedby myself, Leonard Johnson, and Marof the thickness or smallestdimension of the tin A. Rieman, of even date herewith. rains. In ageneral way, it may be assumed that The invention is in the form of avalley and the improved drum may be used asasubstitute for ridge formingcorrugations that are extended lonthe drum of the Ingraham patent, butin which gitudinally in the drum; in fact, the corrugations case withthe improved compound valley and ridge of this application, except forcertain features forming corrugations the different type of sepanhereinafter noted, are preferably the same as those ration aboveindicated, or hereinafter more fully of the said joint application. Thevalleys and described, will take place. ridges of this application, asin the joint appli- As best'shown in Fig. 3, the drum is corrugatedcation, are obviously extendedsubstantially from to form the valleys andinterveni g ri g The end to end of the operating surface of the drum.valleys are deep and. narrow and their walls di- The valleys of thepresent application, as in the verge slight y S that the r ec vedtherein joint application, are of such narrow width th t will be gravityheld but not frictionally held The the separation of clifierent kinds ofgrain or maridges 9 f d between the Valleys 3 are s terial is inaccordance with the thickness of the v Ve design, and y e d o linesgrain kernels. In this specification also the term marked a to linesmarked b. The valleys thickness is used to indicate, or to mean, the prp rmina n th in nd he ri e narrowest or smallest dimension of the grainbegin o t s lines a d Co v e 0 nes D kernel. that form their salientangles.

In practice I have found that th th com The width of the valleys 8 willvary in different tinuous or very long valleys straw and light, longmachines according to the d of p t s o but narrow material willsometimes get into the be accomplished If, for p the u t n valleys andbe carried from the body of the stock to be performed is the Separationt n Or ShriV- with the narrow or thin grain. This I have found elledundeveloped Oats from relatively thick can be avoided by placing bridgeribs or bulges and Well developed oats then the valleys should be 3transversely in the bottoms of the valleys, as will just Wide enough toreceive the relatively thin hereinafter more fully pp ar, grain when thekernels are extended longitudi- Referring to the drawing wherein likecharacnally in the valleys, but not wide enough to reters indicate likepart throughout t several ceive the relatively thick oats. views; Whenthe mixed or commingled grains of vari- Fi 1 i a e ti of th improveddrum ous thickness are fed into the drum, and the drum some parts beingbroken away and some parts is rotated, the grain Will be Carried upward0n being sectioned, the rising side of the drum and will roll back- Fig.2 is fragmentary plan View looking at the ward over the ridges under theaction of gravity. inner surface of the drum. Each of the units of grainillustrated,.which I Fig. 3 is a section t k on th line 3.4 of haveassumed to include oats, becomes parallel 40 Fi 2, to the valleys. Therelatively thin oats will fall Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section taken online n the valleys and i be carried upward to a 4 4 of 3; nd point highenough for the discharge into the Fig. 5 is a transverse section takenon the line receiving trough, not shown, but which, as stated, 5 55 ofFig. 4. would be provided in the machine of the type' The drumillustrated comprises a sheet metal indicated, while the relativelythick oats or other h ll 5, d open head 7 and m, The d a materials thatare thicker than the valleys are is obvious, may be supported andoperated in vari- Wide will roll back and finally be discharged from ousdifierent ways but may be assumed to be a one end of the drum.

drum of a grain separating machine of the type It is important to notethat the ridges 9 slant 50 disclosed and claimed in the Ingraham Patentback from their salient edges b toward the two 412,015,400, dated Sept.24, 1935. The drum of adjacent valleys so that the cats or other grainthat machine is provided with indentations or rolling down the inclinewill tend to become parpockets which reject long grain such as oats, forallel to the valleys. When the grain, assumed to a example, but pick upwheat and carry the same be oats, gets parallel to thevalleys theshrivelled, 55

poorly developed and thin oats Valleys while the thick oats will notenter will drop into the the valleys but will be rolled back toward thebottom of the drum. The ridges formed, as described,

carry the grain in such a way as to prevent the and especially when thedrum is rotated at considerable speed, centrifugal force will also tendto hold the grain in the valleys; and in fact, the grain will be held inthe valleys until the latter have reached such elevation and their wallschanged their angular position in respect to ver tical, to such anextent that gravity will overcome centrifugal force and the slidingfriction of the grain and cause the same to slide or roll out of thevalleys into the trough or receptacle. The diverging walls of thevalleys, however, prevent the grain from being wedged and frictionallyheld in the'valleys, and hence, the discharge thereof will be as abovestated.

As has been stated, the valleys'8 actually'terminate on the lines a. Itwill be understood a that the width of the valleysis determined by thedistance between the lines a-a, and that the reversely beveled, orinclined surfaces of the ridges are beyond said lines a.

With the valleys and ridges extended from, or approximately from, end toend of the operating surface of the drum all of that drum surface isrendered effective for accomplishing the operation by the thicknessabove described. Obviously, length of the grain or material does notenter into the operation inasmuch as the thin long grain kernel will getinto a valley as readily as a shorter one of the same thickness. Thistype of operation is highly important for the separation of not onlythin and thick oats but thin and thick barley and thin and thick wheator for the operationof different commingled grains wherein it is desiredto take out of the mixture relatively thin grain irrespective of length.

As a feature of this invention, the valleys 8 at spaced intervals areformed with transverse bulges orbridge forming ribs l that extend to thetops of the valleys but advisably not to the salient angles 2) of theridges 9. These bulges or bridge-forming ribs [0 are preferably formedby being displaced from the sheet metal of the drum. Said ribs are sospaced that they will engage straws or the like and prevent the samefrom becoming lodged in the valleys'and carried with the narrow or thingrain out of the body of the stock. I have found that the best resultswill be obtained by extending the ribs only to the tops of the valleysproper so that they may have the diverging surfaces of the ridgescontinuous or approximately so. In actual practice the efficiency ofthis improved separating drum has been. demonstrated.

What I' claim is:

A grain separating drum having longitudinally extended, relativelynarrow but flaring substantially symmetrical valleys adapted to receivegrains transversely of their length, relatively wide and shallowintervening ridge-like portions adjoining the upper edges of the valleywalls at angles thereto and providing oppositely inclined relativelylong and flat rolling surfaces which are substantially symmetrical andon which grains are caused to roll about their longitudinal axes towardsand into said valleys uponrotation of the drum, and a straw engaging andsupporting rib extending transversely between the walls of the valleysadjacent their upper edges and merging with the walls of said ridge-likeportions, whereby grains may enter said valleys transversely of theirlength while straw and like bodies are deflected from the valleys andcaused to roll over the surfaces of said ridges.

LEONARD JOHNSON.

